SAN JOSE — Six younger males have been arrested in connection to a string of smash-and-grab jewellery retailer robberies in San Jose final fall and are suspected of comparable crimes elsewhere within the Bay Space and Northern California, police introduced Monday morning.
Theft detectives with the San Jose Police Division, working with different law-enforcement companies within the area, recognized six males between the ages of 18 and 20 they contend dedicated a number of robberies of bijou shops between October and January, police stated.
The group “used sledgehammers and instruments to interrupt open glass show circumstances and take hundreds of dollars’ price of bijou,” in keeping with investigators. In some cases, they allegedly carried weapons and pepper spray, and after the thefts ran to ready automobiles to flee, police stated.
Final Thursday, San Jose and Daly Metropolis police served arrest and search warrants within the case.
5 of the lads have been charged with felonies by the Santa Clara County District Legal professional’s Workplace: Michael Earle, 18, whose listed residences are Menlo Park and Oakland; Charles Evans, 19, of San Leandro; Andrew Maravilla Lopez, 20, of Hayward; Maurice Candy, 19, of Pittsburg; and Noah Tekle, 19, of San Leandro.
Earle, Maravilla Lopez and Tekle are being held with out bail within the Elmwood males’s jail, in keeping with jail data. Evans and Candy are being held on the similar facility in lieu of respective bail quantities of $200,000 and $100,000. A sixth particular person arrested, a 20-year-old Newark resident, has not been charged.
San Jose police and the Santa Clara County District Legal professional’s Workplace stated the group has been tied to high-profile smash-and-grab jewellery retailer robberies together with ones reported Oct. 29 at Eastridge Mall and Jan. 3 on the La Placita Tropicana purchasing heart on Story Highway.
Within the Jan. 3 occasion — which was captured on safety video — authorities say a gaggle used yellow and black hammers to interrupt show circumstances, and that one of many suspects hit a feminine worker on the top with one of many hammers.
Prosecutors additionally say the group tried unsuccessfully to steal jewellery Nov. 5 from a retailer in Valley Honest through which they reported couldn’t break by safety glass, they usually fled after safety guards chased them.
All the thefts occurred within the midst of a spate of group-oriented retail burglaries and robberies throughout the area.
The search warrants led to the seizure of a number of weapons together with what police described as two assault weapons with prolonged magazines, one among which was modified for computerized hearth. In addition they reported confiscating molds and instruments they imagine was used to assemble, produce or modify firearms. The gun recoveries led to 2 different individuals, not linked to the robberies, being arrested for unrelated weapons crimes.
Different police companies concerned within the case included departments in Antioch, Harmony, Merced, Palo Alto, Pittsburg, San Mateo and Roseville, in addition to the U.S. Marshals Service.
Anybody with details about the robberies can contact SJPD Theft Detective Amanda Estantino at 408-277-4166 or go away a tip with Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers at 408-947-7867 or at svcrimestoppers.org.
Examine again later for updates to this story.